KEY POINTS:
He met all kinds of religious types on his travels - from Swedish hermits who hadn't spoken for years to spiritual commune-dwellers just outside Istanbul who survived on air alone. But the most amusing story artist Will Handley tells about the travels that partially inspired his work, in new Auckland gallery City Art Rooms' first show, involves an Indian rooster called Jesus.
"We were on a barge going out to the Andaman Islands, and there were only about four Westerners on the boat. One was an old German guy who had a rooster with him that he always talked to. And don't ask me why, but the rooster was called Jesus. Sadly, the old guy died while we were on the boat so my friend and I decided to take care of his rooster. We took him all the way to Calcutta with us. So I can say that I've walked around Calcutta with Jesus," Handley says.
After one initial six-month trip to India, during which he wandered around barefoot, living, he notes, "out of a sack like a crazed hippie", Handley returned to Asia and spent another six months there, and then in Europe, filming the people he met and always asking them one question: "What is religion to you?"
He got answers from all sorts, from Christian evangelists in Bangkok to Belgian prostitutes to street kids and mosque worshippers in India. And although Handley has yet to translate and edit all his pieces of tape together, he has no doubt all of them had an impact on the work that will be displayed in his second solo exhibition.
"It's not meant to be anti- or pro-religion," Handley says of his multi-media work, which features sightless Madonnas in striped robes and collages made from religious texts and other found objects. "It's just a general fascination with the way people live.
"Though the work is dark in some ways, there's also humour there. You could see the work as trying to tackle grand themes but I think of it more as a little investigation I am conducting - with myself, in many ways."
Handley, who has no formal art education and was training as an architect when art distracted him, will be leaving the country again after his exhibition opens but this time he won't be taking his camera. "Part of the joy of this exhibition for me is that, although the topic is inexhaustible, I definitely feel like I've completed this series. I am looking forward to incorporating other stuff and getting something of a fresh start."
Handley isn't the only one arranging a fresh start. His will be the first exhibition in the City Art Rooms, located in 300sq m of what was formerly the Edmiston Duke Gallery. The new gallery, consisting of two main exhibition spaces, will be run by Kylie Sanderson and her newly appointed curator, Young Sun Han.
Sanderson and her husband have been managing their successful dealer-gallery in Parnell for the past five years - it brings in art sales in excess of $1.6 million - and they had been looking for space to expand, when they were approached by the former owners of Edmiston Duke.
"We used to really enjoy being in the city - the clientele here is quite different," says Sanderson. "It's hard to put your finger on it but I'd say they are people who enjoy [more difficult] art. They enjoy aspects of contemporary art that you wouldn't necessarily put above your mantelpiece."
Curator Young Sun Han's previous employers include the Zola Lieberman gallery in Chicago and Rivet, a gallery in Cologne, Germany.
"A lot of dealer galleries will put on a couple of risky shows a year but the rest of the time their incentive is to sell their stable of artists. What we want to do here is have the second room be really project-driven" he says.
"A lot of really successful galleries overseas - places like White Cube in London - started like this. They exhibit artists on a project to project basis, without necessarily representing them, while still encouraging a loyalty to the main exhibition space."
And while Handley, who has already had soldout shows in the Parnell gallery, bridges the gap between Sanderson's old neighbourhood and the new one, the second room will feature work by Otago-based sculptor Sonia Keogh, a former touring finalist in the Wallace Awards.
EXHIBITION
What: New works, by Will Handley and Sonia Keogh
Where and when: City Art Rooms, Level 1, 28 Lorne St, to July 1
